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A New Zealand academic has leaped to the defence of controversial "Dr Death" Philip Nitschke.
The Sunday Star-Times claimed last weekend that Dr Nitschke had helped a depressed but not terminally ill Wellington woman to kill herself in March 2006 with drugs she had smuggled from Mexico.
The 68-year-old had met the physician before her death.
Dr Nitschke later angrily denied that he had helped her to die.
Right to Life New Zealand spokesman Ken Orr said the organisation was "appalled" at the woman's death and that Dr Nitschke was "teaching people about this [ending their lives] and getting away with it".
Now, Victoria University philosopher Stuart Brock - in a letter to the Weekend Herald - says it is possible to consider the Australian doctor a "moral leader".
Dr Brock - a senior lecturer and associate dean of Victoria's faculty of humanities and social sciences - says Dr Nitschke was not to blame for the woman's death.
If blame must be laid anywhere, it should be with the state, "for not facing up to the euthanasia issue".
"Don't make Nitschke a scapegoat for inaction on behalf of our Government."
Dr Nitschke was in New Zealand this week to conduct seminars on voluntary euthanasia in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch.
Dr Brock - whose own mother died after a long illness - said Dr Nitschke's views about euthanasia and assisted suicide were shocking, because people considered life precious.
However, he still had a right to make his views known, he said.
"As a society, we should care about the wellbeing of those in our society.
"And the way we do that is by facilitating the possibility that people get what they want, and they are as happy as they can be. Philip Nitschke is facilitating this possibility."
But Dr Nitschke has fallen foul of another group following a suggestion people could obtain drugs for human euthanasia from vets.
Veterinary Association president John Maclachlan took exception to reports of a Nelson speech in which Dr Nitschke suggested that having an affair with a vet with access to the restricted drug pentobarbital (Nembutal).
"It is both illegal and unethical for veterinarians to supply veterinary products for human use and I am surprised that any member of the medical profession, which is itself bound by a code of ethics, would come up with a proposal like that.
"To my mind it is irresponsible and mischievous to suggest that any veterinarian would supply this drug to any other person."
Dr Maclachlan said it would be "professional suicide" for a veterinarian to do such a thing.
